TORONTO -- Stock in Research in Motion was up five per cent following a report that IBM is interested in some of the company's assets.

According to the Bloomberg news agency, the U.S. technology giant made an informal approach about the possibility of acquiring RIM's enterprise division, which operates a network of secure servers used to support its BlackBerry devices.

However, the report indicated nothing had come of the approach and that no talks between the two companies were underway.

When asked about the story, RIM said it does not comment on rumours and speculation.

Meanwhile, the Waterloo, Ont.,-based company received good news on the legal front Wednesday when a U.S. judge overturned a $147.2-million patent infringement verdict in favour of Mformation Technoligies Inc. The case involved software for managing mobile devices.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, RIM shares were up 38 cents at $8.10.

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Research In Motion's Rough Year

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RIM experienced trouble competing in the U.S. smartphone market in early 2011 and dropped from second place to third, as Google's Android and Apple's iPhone gathered steam.
The company's shares decreased 40 per cent in value since February, Reuters reported in June.

When facing leaner times in July, the struggling tech company announced its plan to cut 11 per cent of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees, in an attempt to scale back.

To add insult to injury, millions of BlackBerry users around the world experienced network outages, resulting in messaging and browsing delays in October 2011.
Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis posted an apology to YouTube promising improvements to the system.

Following disappointing PlayBook sales resulting in huge profit losses, RIM slashed its tablet prices down to $199, which prompted a major pre-Christmas rush. However, customers became outraged when Best Buy, unable to keep up with demand, reportedly cancelled existing orders and removed the PlayBook from its website when it ran out of stock.
In early January, RIM put its struggling PlayBook tablet on sale again in the U.S. for $299.

Mere days before RIM named Thorsten Heins as its new CEO, Samsung denied rumours that it planned to purchase RIM or license its operating system, causing RIM shares to dip.

May was not a kind month to RIM. Soon after the departure of the company's chief legal officer, Karima Bawa, the company announced that it would hiring two financial firms to advise on the company's financial performance.

If the announcement of the necessary outside help wasn't bad enough, numerous reports surfaced regarding RIM's massive layoffs during the end of May. The cuts were estimated at laying off anywhere from 2000 - 6000 workers.